take shape

phrase

: to assume a definite or distinctive form : to develop and become apparent or established

The plan is finally taking shape.

Edison's tireless work habits took shape during his childhood …

—Paul Gray

The proto-planetary fragments crashed together, coalesced by gravity, and crashed again into other fragments, until they gradually took shape as the planets we know today.

—M. Mitchell Waldrop

… the first half of the century, before the modern medical system took shape.

—Geoffrey Cowley

Examples of take shape in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Construction has hummed along at the store site, and the warehouse has started to take shape in recent weeks. — Nathan Pilling july 8, Kansas City Star, 8 July 2026

In other stations on the factory floor, modules were taking shape for two houses that will replace houses lost in the Palisades fire. — Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2026

In that safety, the songs take shape less like products and more like conversations—unfinished thoughts that find their final form in rhythm. — Desjah Altvater, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026

Talented musicians arrived in droves, looking to cement their place in the emerging music scene taking shape. — Meghan Palmer, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1560, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for take shape

• cityscape
• agape
• escape
• landscape
• lenape
• reshape
• seascape
• soundscape
• ape
• cape
• crape
• crepe